1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention relates to circuits, systems and methods dealing with sense amplifiers and more particularly to circuits, systems and methods relating to static, low-power differential sense amplifiers.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional semiconductor memories include memory cells arranged in one or more memory cell arrays. The memory cells are accessed by the user specifying particular row and column addresses. The row and column addresses cause selection of particular cells in the memory cell array subject to specified row and column addresses. The row and column addresses thus permit access to selected individual cells or groups of cells. The information stored in the selected cells may be output by a read operation or input by a write operation. A sense amplifier is activated in a read operation to sense information stored in particular memory cells and to provide an output signal indicative of that particular information content. This output signal may be provided to other circuitry within the memory device and ultimately to an external device which has requested the read information. Such an external device may for example be a data processing or computer system. Memory devices of the related art have in some cases required enable signals to control the timing of sensing operation performed by the sense amplifiers in a read operation. Such timing control requirements increase memory circuit complexity and consume increased amounts of silicon area required for layout and placement of memory device circuitry on a selected integrated circuit during fabrication. This increased silicon size creates technical difficulties and makes manufacturing more expensive, because the cost of memory devices is at least in part a function of silicon size.
Conventional static differential sense amplifiers moreover often consume excessive power and draw electric current beyond the power levels which optimize battery lifetime. This creates technical problems for mobile computer systems which need extended battery lifetimes. Excessive power consumption unfortunately decreases battery lifetime. The technical problems of excessive currents and high power consumption unfortunately diminish the commercial demand and the functionality of the associated static random access memories (RAMs) whether used in mobile computer systems or otherwise.